Picture frame with variable display areas



April 15, 1952 G. ROSENBERG ET AL PICTURE FRAME WITH VARIABLE DISPLAY AREAS Filed 001;.- 27, 1949 h-as INVENTORS.

Patented Apr. 15, 1952 PICTURE FRAME WITH VARIABLE. DISPLAY AREAS George Rosenberg, Forest Hills, and Louis Spiselman, Brooklyn, .N. Y.

Application October 27, 1949, Serial No. 123,808 7 (Cl. 4(l'1'52) 3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to an improved picture frame for holding portraits, other pictures, or reading or illustrative. matter, and one of the objects of the invention is the provision of a picture frame with means for dividing the back- .ing elements.

Anotherobject of the invention is to provide .one of the fiat elements of a complete picture frame. with. a plurality of vertical ,or longitudinal bars adjustable across the flat element, which may be thebackingor mounting board or back, or the glass. panel or. other transparent sheet material used, and to also provide a series of horizontal or. transverse bars adjustable vertically or lengthwise on the mounting board or back, or upon the transparent facing panel, so that the user can provide interior marginal: masks for any group of pictures of the same size or of different sizes, which is to be mounted in the picture'frame.

,Withthe above and other objects in view the invention comprises certain new and useful constructions, combinations and arrangements of parts, clearly described in the following specification. and fully illustrated in the drawings, in which:

Fig; 1 is a front elevation of a picture frame, illustrating the use of the adjustable *interior margin masking strips on the adjacent edges of pictures of difierent sizes, forming a family group.

Fig. 2 is a similar viewshowing the backing board removed from the picture frame.

Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view, taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 4 is a detail end view of one of the margin masking strips.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan view thereof.

Fig. 6 is a plan view, on a reduced scale, of a modified backing board.

Fig. 7 is a longitudinal sectional view thereof.

Fig. 8 is a "transverse sectional view, taken on line 88 of Fig. 7, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring to the drawings, which illustrate the practical embodiment of the invention, it] designates a metal picture frame, which is shown for illustrative purposes, and which may be of any construction, but in this case includes frame bars 'I I, each of which has an outer metal wall [2, a springback flange l3, and a decorative facing flange [4, which is inclined so that its inner edge Ma thereof will bear against the glass or. transparent facing panel [5.

The. cardboard or other backing board I6 is disposed against the spring back flanges l3 of all of the frame bars ll. Against the inner face of this backing board. a decorative background.

sheet I1. is disposed.

Across the front face of the background sheet IT horizontal or transverse marginal masking strips l8. and I9 are arranged, and vertical or longitudinal margin. masking strips. 20 and 2| arealso arranged, at right angles to the strips l8-and l9- Eachof these margin masking strips is'formed of bright or attractive stiff metal, and is made narrow so that it will not dominate the view composed of the individual pictures grouped upon the backing board, but wide enough to completely mask the adjacent edges of individual pictures or illustrative matter arranged on the mat or backing board.

Each margin masking metal strip' is formed with a struck-out holding prong 22, preferably of V-shaped form, which is located near the outer end thereof, andeach strip has a holding prong near each end thereof. Theseprongs 2.2 are designed to bite into the background sheet I"! and the backing board l6, when manually pushed in place. To compensate for the thickness of any photograph or picture sheet which may be mounted against the background sheet H, the outer end portion of each margin masking strip is formed with a rearwardly disposed spring bend 23 and a forwardly disposed reverse spring bend 24. These bends are disposed so that the secondnamed bend 24 will contact the inner side of the glass or transparent panel I5, when the picture frame is completely assembled, and pressure will thus be maintained to hold the prongs of the masking strips in the backing board l6, and also hold the backing board, the background sheet and the photographs in adjusted position, so that they will not accidentally shift and produce an undesirable appearance. The frame bars of the picture frame also converge to maintain pressure against the contents of the picture frame, and to retain all photographs in their selected position, but it is found that local pressure on the marginal edges of the photographs,

maintained by the masking metal strips and,

their reverse spring bends more effectively aids in controlling the position of the photographs,

when the frame is handled in the usual manner for cleaning or for inspection by visitors.

In the showings of Figs. 1 and 2, a central picture 25 is shown, which is that of a bride, with an insert of the groom, in the central rectangular area 26, bounded by the four crossed masking strips. In'the left upper corner area 21 a picture of a child is shown, in the right upper area 28 a picture of another child is shown, and in the left lower area 29 a picture of a third child is shown, and in the right lower area 30 a picture of a fourth child is shown. In this way a family picture group may be arranged in a single picture frame, with the marginal edges of all pictures clamped in place. The area 3| between the areas 21 and 28 may be left vacant, and in asimilar manner the intermediate areas 32 and 33 on the sides of the picture frame, and the area 34 at the bottom thereof, may be left vacant, to give contrast to the pictures grouped in the picture frame.

In Figs. 6, 7 and 8, we show a backing board 35 having a marginal frame 36 mounted thereon by adhesive or otherwise; Each bar 31 of the frame 36 is outset to form a longitudinal keeper edge 31, and the ends of the metal masking strips 38 and 39 are disposed under these outset keeper edges, and are fully adjustable lengthwise and crosswise.

The manner in which the parts of the picture are connected together, and the manner in which the glass or other transparent panel, and the backing board and the masking margin strips are held in position, is not a part of the present invention, and any suitable means may be shown.

It is understood that our invention may be applied to any type of picture frame, whether made of metal, wood, plastic, composition or any combination of two or more materials, and that various changes in the details of construction, their combination and arrangement, may be made in carrying out the invention, as'defined by the claims appended hereto.

Having described our invention, we claim as new and patentable:

1. A backing board for picture frames having a plurality of metal strips adjustable across the backing board and another plurality of metal strips adjustable on the backing board in right angular relation to the first plurality of strips, each of the metal strips having a prong near the end thereof having piercing engagement with the backing board.

2. A picture frame backing board having a plurality of margin masking metal strips disposed lengthwise thereon, the outer ends of said strips having lateral prongs embedded in said backing board, and a plurality of margin masking metal strips disposed at right angles to said first-named strips across the same and having lateral prongs embedded in said backing board, whereby pictures of different sizes may be secured in different positions against said backing board between said strips and said board.

3. A picture frame having connected frame bars formed of sheet material, each bar being of U-shaped construction to provide a spring backing flange and a spring facing flange the terminal edges of which converge toward each other, a transparent panel disposed between the flanges of all bars, a backing board disposed between said flanges behind the panel, a plurality of transverse masking strips disposed on the back ing board and provided with prongs which penetrate the backing board and further provided with spring bends near said prongs extending forwardly and rearwardly thereof to produce pressure on the panel and on the backing board, and a plurality of longitudinal masking strips disposed on the backing board and provided with terminal prongs which penetrate the backing board and with reverse spring bends which produce pressure against the panel and the backing board, whereby individual photographs may be secured between the masking strips and the panel and all marginal edges of all photographs concealed by the masking strips and said photographs clamped to the backing board to resist accidental displacement from selected display positions.

GEORGE ROSENBERG. LOUIS SPISEIMAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date D. 112,409 Golden Nov. 29, 1935 907,648 Stottum Dec. 22, 1908 1,090,090 Wolf Mar. 10, 1914 1,539,633 Benton et a1 May 26, 1925 1,901,902 Draper Mar. 21, 1933 2,218,409 Smalls Oct. 15, 1940 2,521,603 Prew Sept. 5, 1950 

